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She sighs and nods. She won’t look at me. She stares down at her coffee as if wishing to disappear into it. After a pause, she looks up with a visible effort. “Yeah. That’s it. I’ve wanted to tell you so many times, but things started getting complicated with… No, that’s crap. Icouldhave told you. Ishouldhave.”
“So all that stuff he’s saying… about loving and wanting me…”
“I don’t understand any of that,” Lexi says.
“Really?” I snap. “Surely, you can see. He’s doing it to get back at you. He wanted you to find out he’d sent me flowers. You were there when he sent that barbershop quartet. He wantedyouto see. God, how petty. How pathetic!”
I’m grinning like a madwoman.
“Uh, aren’t you mad?” Lexi asks.
“Yes,” I say, with that same grin on my face. “But don’t you get it, Lexi? This means he doesn’t want me. He’s never wanted me. It’s all been about you.”
She bites down. “I don’t know, though. He’s taken it so far. Me and James, we have our back-and-forths. We play our games, but this is way further than he’s ever taken it.”
“So you think he really did fall for me, a love-at-first-sight deal?” I ask doubtfully.
“I don’t know,” she replies. “I mean, probably not?” She turns it into a question. “But I can’t imagine him taking it this far just to get at me.”
I reach into my pocket, willing my cell phone to start vibrating. I need to know what James has said to his dad, my man, the future father of my children. Anger and relief clash inside of me, a curious and uncomfortable mixture.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” I tell Lexi.
“I know,” she says quietly. “I’ll understand if you don’t want to be my friend anymore.”
“Our friendship means that little, does it?”
“No,” she says fiercely, “but what I did was shitty. It was beyond shitty. So I’dgetit, but I’d hate it. If you give me a second chance, I swear, Sam, I’ll never do anything like that again. I’ll be the best friend you deserve. I promise. It’s just James messes with my head sometimes. Honestly, I think we’re a bit of a toxic pair. I don’t think we’d work. I’m so sorry you got caught in the crossfire.”
I think back to that date, how rude he was, how completely uninterested in me. It makes much more sense knowing he was thinking of Lexi the entire time, wishing she were there instead of me.
“You shouldn’t have done it,” I sigh, “but I understand why you didn’t want to lose face. I get that part initially, but lying to me and keeping it to yourself, especially after the barbershop quartet. You saw how embarrassed I was.”
“I know,” Lexi groans, putting her face in her hands. “I wanted to tell you. I knew I should have. I knew it was the right thing to do, but it was like there was this block inside of me. This… this wall, sort of, stopping me from doing the right thing. Do you know what I mean?”
I laugh humorlessly, thinking back to the date or all the moments with Fletcher when I’ve wanted to say something but felt unable to. My man is helping me break down those walls, but it’s not easy. “Yeah, better than you probably think, but—”
It was still wrong, I’m about to say, but then my cell phone starts vibrating. I take it out of my pocket and answer. “Yeah?”
“It’s me,” Fletcher says. “Could you swing by? I want you to hear this in person. It’s going to be a shock, my perfect painter.”
I wonder if James is in the room with him and heard him call me his perfect painter. “Is it about James and Lexi?” I ask.
“Yeah,” Fletcher replies, sounding confused. “How did you know?”
“Lexi just told me,” I say.
“Ah, I see,” Fletcher sighs. “You should come by anyway. There’s something else James needs to tell you.”
This doesn’t sound good. “Okay, I’ll be there soon.”
When I stand up, Lexi does the same. She moves much more nervously, her chair screeching against the floor.
“I have to go,” I tell her.
She frowns. “Are we…”
“I don’t know,” I say honestly. “We’ll talk about it later.”
